Bengal Agrarian distress youth's aspirations dominate poll discourse in ex-Left citadel Katwa

Kolkata, Apr 27 (PTI) Katwa in West Bengal's Purba Bardhaman district has emerged as a keenly watched assembly constituency, with a direct contest likely between TMC and BJP as agrarian distress and youth's aspirations drive the poll discourse in the predominantly rural seat.
    Katwa, an unreserved seat, is one of the seven assembly segments under the Bardhaman Purba Lok Sabha constituency. It has a predominantly rural character, with around 65.40 per cent of voters residing in villages and 34.60 per cent in urban centres. The electorate is socially mixed, with Scheduled Castes accounting for about 27.41 per cent and Muslims around 21.80 per cent of the population.
    Historically, the constituency was considered a Left stronghold. The CPI won the seat twice, while the CPI(M) secured it six times. The Congress also had a significant presence, particularly under veteran leader Rabindranath Chatterjee, who won the seat in 1996 and went on to retain it consecutively.
    Chatterjee later joined the TMC in 2016 and has continued his winning streak, securing victories in both the 2016 and 2021 assembly elections as a TMC candidate.
    The 2016 election witnessed a close contest, with Chatterjee defeating Congress candidate Shyama Majumdar by only 911 votes. In 2021, Majumdar, then contesting on a BJP ticket, lost to Chatterjee by 9,155 votes.
    The BJP has gradually increased its footprint in the constituency. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the party led in the assembly segment by 1,859 votes. However, in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the TMC regained the advantage, leading by 12,415 votes in the segment.
    In this election, Rabindranath Chatterjee is pitted against BJP's Krishna Ghosh and CPI(M) candidate Sanjib Das but the contest is likely to be two-cornered.
    The total number of voters stood at 2,67,738 in the 2021 assembly elections, which rose to 2,75,698 in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Voter turnout has remained consistently high, recorded at 84 per cent in 2016, 82.55 per cent in 2019, 84.13 per cent in 2021, and 80.45 per cent in 2024.
    Katwa town, after which the constituency is named, holds historical and cultural significance. Located near the confluence of the Ajay and Hooghly rivers, it was strategically important during the Mughal and Nawab periods and served as a gateway to capital Murshidabad.
    Agriculture remains the backbone of the local economy, supported by fertile alluvial soil. Paddy, jute and seasonal vegetables are the primary crops, while small-scale industries and trade supplement livelihoods. Historically, riverine trade, including salt trade, played an important role in the area's economy.
    Chatterjee said that with the setting up of new engineering and medical colleges and improvement in connectivity, the TMC government is fulfilling people's dreams despite "non-cooperation from the BJP government at the Centre".
    Countering Chatterjee, BJP's Ghosh said, "The SSC recruitment scam, loss of jobs and the uncertainty over holding Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) exams have caused deep resentment against the TMC among the educated youth in the constituency."
    She said "crumbling civic amenities" in the area, clogged drains, piling up of garbage and potholed roads cannot be compensated by painting government buildings in blue and white and setting up trident lamps in parts of the town.
    While the youth in the area are earning livelihood by working as online delivery workers, the families of TMC leaders are getting richer, she said.
    Das, on the other hand, said that people are gravitating towards the Left after "seeing through the TMC which has become synonymous with cut money, extortion, muscle-flexing and syndicate culture".
    "People were always with the Left, which was not reflected in EVMs as the TMC goons unleashed a reign of terror in the last few elections. And people here don't support aggressive Hindutva promoted by the BJP.
    "People of Katwa, a town of several temples and religious festivals like Kartik Puja, have always believed in and stood for amity, harmony and peaceful co-existence. It was a Left bastion in the 1990s and early 2000s. It will again become a Left citadel and the trend has already begun," he said.
    Differing with Das, Chatterjee said the BJP has been trying to sow seeds of communal discord in Katwa, a town with a history of communal amity and harmony, but "TMC will win with a bigger margin".
    "The Left has become fossilised. They will not be able to open the account here," he said.
    Priyanka Adhikari, a local resident who studies in Hooghly Women's College, said that the town's infrastructure is crumbling while there are fewer job opportunities for young men and women.
    "I want to pursue a career in AI, but I am not getting proper internship offers either in my district or in Kolkata. We want a government that brings West Bengal on the path of development," she said.
    Farmers in Katwa are also grappling with agrarian distress as low market prices for key crops -- particularly potato and paddy -- continue to erode incomes and deepen financial uncertainty.
    Potato, the region's primary cash crop, is currently selling at Rs 650-700 per quintal in local mandis. Farmers say the rates are far below what is required to recover rising input costs.
    "We are forced to sell at whatever price traders offer," Dudhkumar Jana, a potato grower, said.
    Paddy growers are facing similar challenges. While the minimum support price (MSP) for common paddy stands at Rs 2,203 per quintal, many farmers allege they are compelled to sell below MSP to local middlemen due to delayed procurement and urgent cash needs.
    This has reinforced dependence on informal credit systems, particularly loans from moneylenders, trapping cultivators in debt cycles.
    "There is a lot of political activity, but little discussion about our problems," another farmer remarked.
    Pushan Mondal, a rice farmer of Murshali village, said the gap between wholesale and retail prices has further aggravated concerns.
    Out of 12 bags of paddy he harvested, Mondal said he had to hand over six bags to a local moneylender to repay part of a loan.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)